Incompetent
After being a member for 3.5 years I am finally done with Modern Animal. The final straw for me was an incident with my cat when I was out of town. Just before I left to go to New York to run the NYC marathon my cat stopped eating and I had a really bad feeling that he wasn't feeling well. I immediately got an appetite stimulant for him and set up a whole bunch of options for food in front of cameras and left for the airport. I was up all night on my red eye watching the cameras to see if the appetite stimulant would work and he still did not eat or drink. Knowing that it is very dangerous for cats to go 36+ hours without food or water, when I landed in NY, I immediately organized with Modern Animal to get him seen. It was quite an undertaking to then organize someone to get him into his carrier and drop him off at the vet, but I was so relieved thinking that he was going to get the care that he needed.
I spoke with the vet that was assigned (not my usual one) and gave him the background and he truly sounded disinterested in helping me out whatsoever. My cat hates the vet and normally I do have to give him some gabapentin before vet visits to chill him out. Obviously I could not do that this time, so the doc said he wanted to sedate him to examine him. That was fine with me. Hours go by and I get a call saying they tried to sedate him but it didn't work so they will try again. Several more hours pass. They finally call me and say they can't sedate him and there's nothing more they can do and to 'come and get him.' It's truly like they just didn't hear me when I explained that I was across the country and they certainly didn't care that he was being sent home to an empty house without anyone there to take care of him.
They suggested that I bring him back the next day after giving him gabapentin. I told them that my cat sitter wouldn't be able to pill him by herself as it normally takes the 2 of us to pill him, and they told me to get her to put the gabapentin in his food. WHAT PART OF HE'S NOT EATING DON'T YOU GUYS UNDERSTAND?!?! The doc also suggested some prescription food and a probiotic and a couple of other items, and I said yes to everything and to please package it up and I will get my cat sitter to pick him up with the items and take him home. When she picked him up they didn't even bother giving her any of the items they recommended.
The cat sitter brought him home and set up fresh food in front of cameras and I stayed glued to the feeds from across the country. I paid for an extra visit to have her return first thing the following morning. The next morning when she visited, he still hadn't eaten anything and she said that he had deteriorated so much overnight that if it was her cat she would be getting him to the ER. We immediately changed our flight home to the earliest we could and canceled our entry into the NYC marathon (after 5 months of training and thousands of dollars for our charity entry).
When we got home at midnight that night, we rushed him to the ER and we learned that he has pancreatitis, which is easily diagnosed by a simple blood test and treatable with fluids and pain meds. However, since it had been so long since he had food or water he now had to be hospitalized. The final bill was $8,500.
I was truly willing to forgive Modern Animal for their incompetence, neglect, and medical malpractice and I gave them a chance to make it right. I complied with their requests for the records and waited WEEKS for them to review the information and come up with a resolution to offer me. They finally replied offered me a $300 credit to use for future services and even more insulting took no responsibility. Didn't even apologize for the trauma my cat had to endure, or the emotional distress they caused us. $300 in a credit is just flat out insulting.
Bottom line is they don't care about you or your pets and use their 'fear free' practice tag line as an excuse for utter incompetence and neglect.








